May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as I mentioned in last Friday’s blog post. To show their support for the AAPI community, Pixar issued this statement with its short video, Float:

The same statement appears on the YouTube page for Wind. Both animations are beautiful, though a bit melancholy. I think that gifted students will certainly identify with many of the emotions in Float, and they will admire the ingenuity of the main character in Wind.

To bring home the message of Wind, be sure to watch the very brief (1:25) message from its creator, and how the film became a tribute to his grandmother and the sacrifices made by immigrants and those they leave behind. And Bobby Rubio, who wrote Float and based it on his son who was diagnosed with autism, discusses fan reactions in this video with Erica Milsom whose film, Loop (available on Disney+), also has an autistic character.

This post will be added to my Wakelet of Anti-Racism posts. Check it out for more ideas!